Horsham interfaith group ‘Remembers Hiroshima’

The dedication by Horsham Interfaith Forum opened with a poem and observed two minutes’ silence at 8.15 am, the time the atomic bomb exploded.

During the service, the congregation held hands in a circle and read haikus about the catastrophic event.

The Rev Richard Boeke, 82, of Horsham, a member of the group, who this April made his fourth ‘pilgrimage’ to Hiroshima, led the service.

The ex-US airforce chaplain (Suez crisis, 1955-58) said: “I want to keep reminding myself that there’s some hope in the peace movement, that we don’t have to be in this endless route of making guns and murdering each other, and that’s why I’m here.”

Ted Stevens, 79, retired, of Horsham, said: “For those who lived through the second world war, it’s an appalling loss of life we must never forget.”

Julia Derry, 68, retired, of Horsham, attended the gathering for the first time today.

The ex-anti Vietnam war protester said: “I found it very emotional because of the thought of Hiroshima and all the implications of dropping bombs and destroying cities, it’s so horrendous.”

And Carol Chambers, 64, a beauty therapist, of Horsham, said: “We hope the message goes to a wider audience, for people to think about these things.”